Lao
Hand-rolled sticky rice, larb, and fermented fish sauce — the kitchen Thailand half-claims.
Lao Larb Pa
Fish minced raw or barely-cooked, tossed with toasted rice powder, lime, fish sauce, mint, chili. The Lao national dish.
View page →Laos eats with sticky rice in the right hand, balled into a small wad and used to scoop everything else. Khao niao (sticky rice) is the foundation; you eat it three times a day, plain, with everything. Then come the strong tastes: tam mak hoong (the original papaya salad, more fermented-fishy than its Thai cousin), larb (minced meat tossed with toasted rice powder, fish sauce, mint, chili, lime), mok pa (fish steamed in banana leaves), or lam (Luang Prabang's bitter herb-and-buffalo stew). The food is fierier, more bitter, more pungent-with-fermented-fish than Thai cooking — Lao food is what Thailand's Isaan region eats too, which is why Thailand often claims it as Thai. Bamboo, river fish, padaek (fermented fish paste), wild herbs from the forest. The cuisine is communal, hand-eaten, and unapologetically untamed.
Three Regions
Three Mekong-valley kitchens — Northern Luang Prabang mountains, Central Vientiane canon, Southern Champasak with sa-khan pepper. Tap a region to see its table.
Vientiane capital canon — pho noodles from Vietnamese-Lao fusion, sticky rice eaten by hand, the laap-and-larb minced-meat-salad signature.
Mountain Luang Prabang heritage with French-colonial inflections — or lam stew, jeow bong chili paste with buffalo skin, the smoked-pork-and-bamboo tradition.
Mekong-Khmer borderlands — sa-khan mountain pepper, sien savanh sun-dried beef, pa daek fermented-fish stews, the Bolaven Plateau coffee culture.
The Palate
Start Here
Glutinous rice soaked overnight, steamed in a conical bamboo basket, served in a small woven basket called a tip khao. Eaten with the right hand alongside everything else.
Why start here · Sticky rice is Lao cooking's chassis. You cannot understand any other Lao dish until you've eaten with sticky rice; this is the foundation.
Green papaya pounded in a clay mortar with chili, lime, fish sauce, padaek (fermented fish), tomato, peanuts, and palm sugar. The original papaya salad — fierier and funkier than Thai som tam.
Why start here · Tam mak hoong shows the Lao difference: more padaek (fermented fish), more chili, less sugar. Thai som tam is the polite cousin; this is the real thing.
Luang Prabang's signature jungle stew — buffalo or beef simmered with sakhan (peppery wood), lemongrass, eggplant, mushrooms, and bitter herbs. Eaten with sticky rice.
Why start here · Or lam is the most distinctively Lao dish — the sakhan wood gives a peppery-numbing kick found nowhere else. Eat this once and you've eaten Luang Prabang.
The Pantry
Padaek
Som Moo
Coriander Root
Fermented Soybean Paste
Freshwater Fish
Fried Garlic
Cherry Tomato
Long BeansSee all 88 ingredients›
Vegetables
Herbs & Spices
Grains & Staples
Dairy & Fats
Sauces & Condiments
How They Cook
Techniques that define this cuisine
